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After all the havoc that was wreaked the past month, the school's annual summer festival was anticipated more than ever. It would always take place right before the midterms, serving its purpose in ensuring the students had a blast before hitting the books. It would be a week of sun, fun and hangovers that every student looked forward to.
Fun for all, except for Lee Donghyuck.
Not only was he in charge of planning the themed party for the thirdyears, he had an away game coming up and Donghyuck had the responsibility of making sure they came back with victory for the sixth year in a row. Once back from the game, he'd have to represent his faculty's student council in the campuswide debate competition. Then, it would be the masquerade ball, where he would have to supervise the whole damn thing until midnight.
Busy couldn't even begin to describe it. His stress levels were off the roof. Especially after the little embarrassing episode with Jaehyun he had in front of the whole team, there were times that Donghyuck wished he could be folded in half and be tucked away in his roommate's super neat closet.
Yet for the time being, Donghyuck's only source of stress was how much Jeno sucked at the current round of Overwatch they were playing. He loudly booed into his mic when Jeno made an amateur mistake, fingers clanking away at his keyboard that was fighting for its life.
"Hey, Jeno? Your grandma called, she says she's rolling in her grave watching you play."
"My grandma's dead, you dick."
"I know, dumbass, that's why I made that joke."
Right when a shimmer of hope to win began to shine in Donghyuck's eyes, he received a phone call from one of his student council peers who would also be his teammate for the debate competition. With a groan and a pissed off jab at the keyboard to pause the game, he answered the call, wondering what could be so important that Youngji had to call him in the middle of the night.
"Dude! Why aren't you checking your texts?"
"What? I've only stayed off my phone for a half an hour,"
Donghyuck moved his phone away from his ear momentarily to check the time and his eyes widened. Yikes. It was actually four hours.
"Whatever, but this is pretty urgent. You know that the debate competition is supposed to be this Thursday?"
"Yeah, and?"
"They're moving it to Tuesday! I was talking to Jisung just now and he mentioned that the soccer team has a game in Incheon that day, which is why I spammed you with texts and called you because what are you going to do?"
"What?! Why? These dates were set months ago, what's with the fucking last minute change?" Donghyuck cursed, feeling the stress he had suppressed rise up to his chest.
Youngji made a disgusted sound. "The dean wants to watch the competition and he apparently has a dentist appointment on Thursday."
"That old man keeps getting on my damn nerves," Donghyuck muttered, then sighed. "Fuck. You know I'm choosing soccer over debate, right?"
"Yeah. I know. Which sucks because we're either going in without our best debater or we'll have to pull out."
Leaning back in his chair in despair, a miraculous thought popped into Donghyuck's mind. A thought that came in the form of the girl in the room next door.
"Hey, if I can find a replacement, does it have to be a member of the council?"
"Nah, just has to be a student of the faculty and they have to be aware that all prizes or rewards from the competition go to the council's funds. Why? Do you have someone in mind?" Youngji asked.
Once the call with Youngji ended, Donghyuck bursted out of his room and found his roommate eating instant noodles at the dining table. Noodles halfway through her mouth, she eyed the way Donghyuck was smiling at her in determination. It was kind of creeping her out and she started to wonder what she should throw at him in case their apartment's ghost had taken Donghyuck's body hostage.
"Jiji, I have a proposition for you."
"No."
"You don't know what it is yet—"
"I do know that any propositions from you should be declined at all times."
Donghyuck took the empty chair next to her, casually placing an arm around her back like they were best buddies. The sudden close contact made Jiseol's heart skip a beat and it wasn't from the spicy soup she'd been eating.
"I think you'll like this particular proposition, babe. You miss debating, don't you?"
"That came from out of nowhere." Jiseol raised an eyebrow. Donghyuck then explained to her the whole situation and exaggerated a few details to make sure he was really reeling her in.
"Look, the only debater that I know is as good as me would be you. I can't think of anyone else and don't you want our faculty to keep our winning streak? Don't you want to feel a win again?"
Jiseol bit her lip. "I don't know, man. It's been years...I don't want to risk embarrassing myself, embarrassing the whole faculty. Embarrassing you by being your replacement. You've got quite the reputation, you know."
There was something else that she wanted to say, but she was reluctant. Donghyuck encouraged her to speak out, however, nodding to tell her it was okay to say what was really on her mind.
"Besides, I'm not sure if I'm ready to be so out there after everything that happened. Can people even take me seriously?"
"Even if they don't, so what? You're going to blow their minds away once you start speaking, so whatever they initially think of you isn't going to matter." Donghyuck said.
"How am I supposed to blow their minds away when I haven't come close to a debate in forever? And there's only a few days left until the competition! I think you're better off with someone else." Jiseol shrugged.
Donghyuck didn't budge. He refused to. More than wanting his team to win even without him, he wanted Jiseol to shine. He wanted Jiseol to see herself shine.
"You know you've got what it takes. Besides, I already told Jisung and he's thrilled that you'll be in the competition. He'll be disappointed if he finds out you're not up for it."
"How dare you use my brother's name against me." Jiseol glared at him, to which Donghyuck responded with a smirk.
"But it worked, didn't it?"
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i am not dead, this book is not dead. longer chapters ahead if my masters doesn't kill me
